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Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe blasted Nelson Mandela as a "coward" and "idiot" during a rally today to celebrate Mugabe's record seventh term in office following his victory in the country's disputed elections last week.
In one of his trademark fiery speeches, the 89-year-old Mugabe -- who has led the southern African country since 1980 -- claimed that he should be hailed as an African hero instead of Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon and former president of neighboring South Africa.
"My huge victory in these elections prove I am the greatest leader in the history of Africa," Mugabe told supporters in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. "I have spent my whole life fighting for the Zimbabwean people and they continue to elect me."
Mugabe tightened his iron grip on power in last week's elections after he received 61 percent of the vote while his ZANU-PF party won a two-thirds majority in parliament, though there are allegations of widespread fraud and violence against the opposition.
"I am the greatest African who has ever lived," Mugabe said. "The world should love me more than the idiot Nelson Mandela. F**k Nelson Mandela. As I waged war against colonialism, that coward sat on his ass in prison for 27 years. He's a coward.
"I have been leader for 33 years. Mandela was president for five years. What kind of idiot gives up political power? Great leaders like me know how to stay in power.
"While Mandela sits comfortably in a hospital, I stand before you fit and healthy, ready to lead this country and the Zimbabwean people for at least another 25 years," Mugabe added, referring to the 95-year-old Mandela's ongoing treatment for a lung condition.
Mugabe also mocked South Africa's multicultural "rainbow nation" in his speech, claiming that Mandela didn't care about the interests of black Africans.
"There is only one color allowed in Zimbabwe, and it is black," he said. "I banned the color white in my country. Nelson Mandela told all the white people to stay in his ridiculous rainbow nation. He should have thrown all of the whites and homosexuals out of his country like I did. South Africa would be so much better off."
The Lord of Misrule
Mandela served as South Africa's president from 1994 to 1999 and is highly regarded at home and worldwide for his role in ending apartheid and becoming the country's first democratically elected leader.
Similar to Mandela, Mugabe played a pivotal role in the struggle for black-majority rule against the white minority-controlled Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe.
In recent years, however, Mugabe and his government have plunged the country into diplomatic and economic isolation due to corruption, authoritarian rule, political violence and human rights abuses. Mugabe drew international condemnation in particular over his land redistribution policies, in which prosperous commercial farmers were chased off their land by violent mobs.
South Africa, which borders Zimbabwe, has pursued a policy of silent diplomacy with Mugabe, appeasing him in public while supposedly criticizing him in private.
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, who congratulated Mugabe on his presidential victory, said he would review Mugabe's remarks before making an official statement.


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UH Manoa researchers share results of study on shark cage diving operations
Negligible impact on public safety, according to paper in Environmental Conservation journal
University of Hawaiʻi at MānoaA study by five university researchers—including four from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa—concludes that existing shark cage diving enterprises in Hawaiʻi have a negligible effect on public safety.
The paper, "Seasonal cycles and long-term trends in abundance and species composition of sharks associated with cage diving ecotourism activities in Hawaiʻi," is authored by Carl G. Meyer, Jonathan J. Dale, Yannis P. Papastamatiou, Nicholas M. Whitney and Kim N. Holland, and has been published in the online section of the Environmental Conservation journal.
Meyer, Dale, Papastamatiou and Holland are researchers with the UH Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology at Coconut Island, while Whitney works at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida.
The scientists collected and analyzed logbook data from two Oʻahu shark cage diving operations from 2004-08 to obtain "useful insights into shark ecology or ecotourism impacts." Those impacts on public safety were deemed to be "negligible," due to factors such as remoteness of the sites, and conditioning stimuli that are specific to the tour operations and different from inshore recreational stimuli.
The study also notes that there has been "no increase in shark attacks on the north coast of Oʻahu since cage diving started."
For more information, visit: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=ENC

subset: commoncrawl


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Guyana Balinese Rescue |
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ARLINGTON, Texas - A woman riding a roller coaster at a Six Flags amusement park in North Texas died Friday, and witnesses say she fell from a ride that is billed as the tallest steel-hybrid coaster in the world.
The accident happened just after 6:30 p.m. Friday at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. Park spokeswoman Sharon Parker confirmed that a woman died while riding the Texas Giant roller coaster but did not specify how she was killed. However, witnesses told local media outlets that the woman fell.
"She goes up like this. Then when it drops to come down, that's when it (the safety bar) released and she just tumbled," said Carmen Brown of Arlington. Brown said she was waiting in line to get on the ride when the accident happened.
Six Flags expressed sadness over the death and said it was temporarily closing the section of the park around the accident site. It didn't say how long the area would be closed. A message left for Parker by The Associated Press was not returned.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends during this difficult time," the park's statement said.
The Texas Giant reaches 14 stories high and has a drop of 79 degrees and a bank of 95 degrees. It can carry up to 24 riders. The ride first opened in 1990 as an all-wooden coaster but underwent a $10 million renovation in 2010 to install steel-hybrid rails before reopening in 2011.
Brown said she was next in line behind the woman and saw her being strapped into her seat next to her son.
"We heard her screaming. We were like, 'Did she just fall?"' Brown said.
Arlington police Sgt. Christopher Cook, the department spokesman, referred all questions to Parker. No other details were available.
In another amusement park accident Friday, a boat on an Ohio thrill ride accidentally rolled backward down a hill and flipped over in water when the ride malfunctioned, injuring all seven people on it. Operators stopped the Shoot the Rapids water ride after the accident, which occurred on the ride's first hill, the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, said.
In 1999, a 28-year-old Arkansas woman drowned and 10 other passengers were injured when a raft-like boat on the Roaring Rapids ride at Six Flags overturned in 2 to 3 feet of water about 200 feet from the end of the ride.
Six Flags Over Texas opened in 1961 as the first amusement park in the Six Flags system. It is 17 miles west of downtown Dallas.


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Three Ways to Wear Plants
Clothes make the man, or so it's been said. But what about plants? The Irish talk about the wearin' of the green, but long before there was any concept of Irish, or really, any concept beyond tribe, fops flaunted foliage and flowers as finery at just about any significant gathering, just as these kids are doing in this set of phenomenal photographs by Hans Silvester taken among the Surma and Mursi tribespeople of Ethiopa's Omo Valley. Loads of these dramatic images are collected in Silvester's book, Natural Fashions.
Anyhooo, I'm thinking that, as far as fashionable foliage goes, this look represents the traditional, having been part of humanity's attire for thousands of years. Foliage and flowers, in fact, were the first kinds of clothing ever worn, and these young men and women have mastered the art of accessorizing.
Let's make the leap from Africa to present-day Paris, where fashion-forward models are strolling the runways in their own little leafy get ups. Actually this dress is the creation of plantsman extraordinaire Patrick Blanc, best known for his remarkable wall gardens gracing buildings all over the world (See examples of his work and read an interview here.) A few years ago, he turned to fashion, and designed a wedding dress, which he called the "Robe Vegetale", for couturier Jean-Paul Gaultier. This is definitely a high-end, haute couture approach to wearing plants.
Lastly, there's the fusion approach to the wearin' of the green. This takes us both back and forward in time. Back to the Green Man, the emblematic manifestation of humankind's kinship with the natural world as expressed by dieties and mythic figures linked to agricultural cycles and the plant kingdom. The Green Man has been linked, conceptually at least, to figures such as Osiris, John Barleycorn, Godin, and the Celtic god Viridios, whose name means green man. The Green Man's image-a face emerging from a swirl of leaves and vines, is often depicted on churches and has become a popular garden ornament. Here are several interpretations of the Green Man, including the traditional masklike motif, and a dandefied version painted by Kathleen O'Connell.
Finally, we race back to the future with this post-modern looking Green Man, whose vague sense of unease may reflect a deep seated uncertainty about contemporary humanity's relationship with nature. Or the image (sorry, no idea who created this intriguing photograph, or the drawing-love to credit them if I could) may simply reflect the understandable angst of waking up one morning to discover that you are half plant.
9 comments:
- Philip Bewley said...
What a spectacular post!
I love how you have tied the Green man imagry from Ethiopia( those are amazing) to Patrick Blanc.
Just wonderful.
Philip - December 16, 2008 at 2:16 PM
- Kit Aerie-el said...
I'm trying to decide...bad hair day or good?
Impressive post--love the segues (and photos, of course.)
~Aerie-el - December 17, 2008 at 6:37 PM
Fun, fun, fun post!Very creative.
- December 18, 2008 at 12:40 PM
- Steve Silk said...
Thanks Philip-the unexpected is always fun.
- December 19, 2008 at 1:40 PM
- Steve Silk said...
I'm thinking good hair day--doesn't need mowing or weed whacking. A little raking and you're good to go! - December 19, 2008 at 1:42 PM
- Steve Silk said...
Thanks Anne-I thought it was fun too. Halloween anyone?
- December 19, 2008 at 1:42 PM
- lisa said...
Very cool images! As for the last one...I've had that dream numerous times!
- December 26, 2008 at 4:08 PM
- Amai Rodríguez said...
I found your love and i'm loving it!!! :)
- February 12, 2012 at 9:05 AM
- SalvagedLove said...
Hi there! Very interesting post... I came across your page while researching the idea of the Green Man for a mask I am making. When looking through your photos, I instantly recognized the one of the "postmodern Green Man" near the end as being from an exibition I saw at the Museum of Art & Design a few years ago. I thought you might be interested to know the artist is Levi van Veluw.
http://collections.madmuseum.org/code/emuseum.asp?emu_action=searchrequest&moduleid=1&profile=objects¤trecord=1&style=single&rawsearch=id/,/is/,/8301/,/false/,/true - September 11, 2013 at 12:54 PM


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Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Piano Sonata No.30 in E major Op.109 Piano Sonata No.31 in A flat major Op.110 Piano Sonata No.32 in C minor Op.111 Piano Sonata No.4 in E flat major Op.7 Piano Sonata No.17 in D minor Op.31 No. 2 Tempest Piano Sonata No.18 in E flat major Op.31 No. 3 Piano Sonata No.3 in C major Op.2 No.3 Piano Sonata No.28 in A major Op.101 Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor Op.37 Sviatoslav Richter (piano) Moscow Youth Symphony Orchestra/Kurt Sanderling (Concerto) rec. live 22 March 1952 (Op. 37); 10 January 1965 (Op. 31 Nos. 2, 3; Op.90); 10 October 1965 (Opp.101, 110); 22 January 1972 (Op.109); 12 January 1975 (Op.2 No.3; Opp.7, 111) ADD BRILLIANT CLASSICS 94399 [3 CDs: 74:19 + 73:32 + 79:57] Richter fans must so often content themselves with poor quality recordings made live in less than ideal circumstances on even less ideal equipment. The good news is that everything here, although live, is in sound ranging from at least tolerably good to excellent; only the concerto is in mono. Be careful, however; this latest Brilliant Classics issue is simply a re-packaging of the Beethoven stripped out from an earlier 5 CD set also containing the Liszt B minor sonata and four Schubert sonatas. This was the first time these recordings had appeared on CD; for anyone like me wanting just Richter's Beethoven, already having his Schubert sonatas on various bargain labels such as Regis and Alto, this is the ideal economy package - but Richter completists will want to avoid duplication. The sonatas were recorded over ten years in 1965, 1972 and 1975 with the latter being by the far the best, sonically speaking, although the artistry is uniformly dazzling throughout; this is Richter at his peak. The bonus is a mono recording of the Piano Concerto no. 3, made with a conservatory student orchestra conducted by Kurt Sanderling in 1952, also previously released by Brilliant in their Richter Concerto collection. While we must be grateful to Brilliant for issuing so many previously unavailable, high-quality recordings at such affordable prices, their mixing and matching repackaging strategies can be confusing. No more confusing, however, than Richter's discography in general, so this remains a tempting compilation, especially when so many of the vintage recordings made in the Soviet Union were often so distorted and edgy; these are eminently listenable, despite being a bit brittle and boomy. There is some coughing, especially irritating in Op.110, a fair amount of background noise and some pre-echo and intermittent pitch fluctuations in the original tapes which have not been corrected. This is especially noticeable in the Andante of Op.109. That said, none of this will deter the Richter aficionado. Op.101 is wonderfully free and Romantic so it's a pity about the distortion in the crashing chords at the beginning of the second movement. Humour and wit may not be the qualities we first associate with Richter but they are to the fore in the delightfully capricious Allegro which concludes the sonata. Relief from trying sound issues comes in the form of the sound for Op.111. The pianist's fierce intensity in the Allegro sweeps all before it at a whirlwind tempo. Indeed, the three items from 1975 are those by far the easiest on the ear and best permit the listener to appreciate the clarity and firmness of Richter's touch in the more percussive sections. Thus the reversion on CD2 from the 1975 recording of Op.7 to Op.31. No.2 is an aural disappointment. The ear soon compensates, such is the majesty of Richter's playing in the Tempest. One cougher needed ejecting, however. Yet while expecting his trademark dynamism I am always surprised afresh by the sweet fluidity Richter's playing in lyrical passages such as the "singbar" second movement of Op.90. It's a mood which carries over into the cantabile first movement of Op.109 before the cascading waves of arpeggios and the thunderous development in which we hear the Olympian style more typically associated with Richter. In the more playful movements of earlier sonatas such as No.3 Richter plays with such brio and communicates a real joy in Beethoven's invention; his energy is irresistible. While the quality of recorded sound in the items from 1965 is sometimes a cause for mild regret, there is compensation in the way Richter demonstrates his mastery over the gamut of Beethoven's emotional range. This Sonata No.3, which bridges the world of Haydn and the new sensibility, is among those in the best sound. The live Third Piano Concerto is the earliest of Richter's accounts on record. It is inevitably a little boxy and the performance is hardly the last word in refinement. The woodwind are sometimes approximate in intonation but Richter's virtuosity is what catches the ear. Sanderling is a flexible, accommodating conductor, understanding his soloist's needs. There is not too much lingering rubato in the Largo. The concluding Rondo is exceptionally swift, its Presto conclusion offering ample opportunity for Richter to demonstrate his phenomenal prestidigitation. A biography and extensive notes on each work are provided in the booklet. Ralph Moore Masterwork Index: Beethoven sonatas
Masterwork Index: Beethoven sonatas


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Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act (H.R. 1526)Status: Passed the House on September 20, 2013 with a bipartisan vote of 244-173. Awaits consideration by the Senate.
September 20, 2013
The Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act (H.R. 1526), renews the federal government's commitment to manage federal forests for the benefit of rural schools and counties and to improve forest health. It will put tens of thousands of Americans back to work; provide stable funding for counties to use for education and infrastructure; improve local management of our federal forests; and help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
Supporting Rural Schools and Communities:
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Related Videos:Chairman Hastings: Our Federal Forests are Being Badly Managed and There Have Been Devastating Consequences (9/19/2013) House Floor Leadership Hour on H.R. 1526 (9/10/2013) Related News:
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Chicago ( (listen) shih-KAH-goh, locally also shih-KAW-goh; Miami-Illinois: Shikaakwa; Ojibwe: Zhigaagong) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is also the most populous city in the Midwest. As the seat of Cook County (the second-most populous U.S. county), the city is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, one of the largest in the world. On the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century; by 1860, Chicago was the youngest U.S. city to exceed a population of 100,000.
Avalon Park, Belmont Gardens, Belmont Heights, Beverly View, Big Oaks, Bronzeville, Bucktown, Budlong Woods, Burnside, Central Station, Chicago Lawn, Cottage Grove Heights, Dearborn Park, Douglas, East Hyde Park


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The Great Food Truck Race films season finale in downtown Fort MyersPursuit of Hodges University as potential City Hall paused
Pope Francis celebrates a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Pope Francis on Palm Sunday urged young people not to be silent and let their voices be heard, even in the face of corrupt or silent elders. The pope's message comes on the heels of a meeting of young Catholics who told the Vatican they want a more transparent and authentic church, and a day after hundreds of thousands marched in youth-led rallies across the United States to demand greater gun control. "The temptation to silence young people has always existed," Francis said. "There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. … There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive. " But he told youths in his homily that "you have it in you to shout," even if "we older people and leaders, very often corrupt, keep quiet." As the Roman Catholic Church enters Holy Week, retracing the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection three days later on Easter Sunday, Francis urged youth to join those who offer praise, and not the masses calling for crucifixion. "Dear young people, the joy that Jesus awakens in you is a source of anger and irritation to some, since a joyful person is hard to manipulate," the pontiff said. Some 300 youths meeting at the Vatican this week prepared a document for next October's synod of bishops at the Vatican focusing on to help youths better find their way in the church. The document, which was presented to Francis on Sunday, asked church leaders to address the unequal roles of women in the church and how technology is abused. Before his traditional Sunday prayer at the end of Mass, the pope recalled the importance World Youth Day, marked this year on Palm Sunday at a diocesan level rather than as a big international gathering. The pope's message also resonated with the Saturday protests across the United States for tougher laws to fight gun violence, a movement galvanized by the school shooting last month in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead. At the end of Mass, the pope and cardinals in red robes led a solemn procession clutching elaborately braided palm fronds as they walked through the throngs, followed by the papal blessing of palm fronds and olive branches. The processions recalls the bittersweet nature of Holy Week, with the faithful clutching simple palm fronds and olive branches to commemorate Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem only to be followed later by his death on a wooden cross. The pope concluded by greeting the faithful in St. Peter's Square, getting out of the popemobile to shake hands as many cheered and took pictures.


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Experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger used his camera to express his innermost feelings. Encouraged to do exactly the same thing, modern film students invariably imitate their favorite Hollywood pictures. Los Angeles- based, and with a grandmother who was once a movie costumer, Anger essentially invented his own kind of cinema based upon what he could accomplish with some friends when the rest of the family left for the weekend. His first efforts are photographically crude but visually arresting; they communicate precise states of mind and conjure visuals that stick in the memory. As with Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger's homegrown art movies attracted the attention of the Hollywood art crowd, and his reputation quickly spread to museums and film clubs. High praise followed from luminaries like Jean Cocteau. Within a few years Anger was in New York and Europe, moving among an elite crowd, an intellectual cinema fringe. Experimental films often need the atmosphere of a cinema club or a film school, any place where the audience can be 'prepared' to lend an open mind to something new. Pale video copies of old 16mm prints are now the common way for students see films like Meshes of the Afternoon. Superior collections of artistic short subjects are in short supply: Treasures from American Film Archives, Unseen Cinema - Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894-1941. Fantoma's The Films of Kenneth Anger, Volume One takes advantage of excellent restorations of his most notable early work. Seen as a group, Anger's pictures express a personal, symbolic inner world. He claims that they are often literal representations of his dreams. The first film on the playbill is a direct recounting of personal anxieties. The later efforts reach for new directions of artifice, but all evoke dream states, from the delicate to the phantasmagorical. Fireworks (1947) is the only overt example of gay cinema in this first volume, although it has no graphic sex content per se. Anger filmed this crude, remarkably expressive film literally over a single weekend when the folks were out of town. Using a living room cleared of furniture and some simple props, Anger's blunt, often out-of-focus images tell the story of a seventeen year-old (himself) fascinated by male beauty, and then beaten and tormented by a group of sailors. The abstract imagery goes way beyond what one would call sexually charged ... Anger's visions of torture include bizarre shots of milk cascading onto his face and down his chest. The film obsesses on a Piéta-like image of a sympathetic sailor carrying Anger's dead body, a shot echoed in a stack of burning photographs. Remembered from the Playboy "Sex in the Cinema" articles is a shot of a sailor lighting a roman candle stuck in the fly of his pants -- I imagine that was the film's buzzword visual. But more disturbing -- I don't know why -- is the cutaway to the young man struggling because his head has turned into the remnant of a Christmas tree, complete with decorations and tinsel! Anger's personal visions seem obsessed with the idea of transformation, a concept that links his fascinations with glamour, monsters and ambivalent primal creatures akin to the mythological 'elementals' of his later work. What makes Anger an artist is that his images aren't repackaged from the media or the movies, and his unsophisticated equipment doesn't allow him to get bogged down in technique. Every shot has impact and force. He's tapped a cinematic form independent of narrative concerns. Puce Moment (1950) is an expressive fragment, this time in bright, almost electric colors; Anger's camerawork is improving. Anger planned a much more elaborate film, that judging by his storyboards (included in the disc booklet) might have looked like a tinsel town variant on Alla Nazimova's 1923 Salomé. The 'moment' that he did shoot simply shows a female star choosing a dress -- a lengthy shot of colored garments moving past the lens -- and primping to go out. The film is an example of the 'a little help from my friends' sub-genre; Anger makes use of his grandmother's costumes, a friend's collection of vintage perfume bottles and the Hollywood Hills home (and fancy dogs) of yet another presumed confidante/career enabler. It's the weakest show here but would probably take first prize in a student film contest. The beautiful Rabbit's Moon (1950) was filmed in 35mm on a Paris soundstage and consciously affects Cocteau crossed with William Dieterle's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which Anger incidentally played the Changeling Prince character. He uses a modest but beautiful forest glade set, cel animation and actors from a mime troupe to tell the Commedia dell'arte story of a clown who falls in love with both the moon (sometimes represented by a bunny rabbit) and an aloof dancer. Finished only twenty years later, this full 16-minute version is accompanid by fifties' Doo-Wop tunes ("There's a moon out tonight ...") that somehow set the perfect mood. Actions are repeated in a dreamlike trance as the poor clown Pierrot is humiliated by the dancer and a leering harlequin figure. Unlike some experimental filmmakers unconcerned with technique, Anger is a visual stylist in search of precise images, and this show is a beauty. But oneiric fantasy always comes first: Pierrot uses a magic lantern to project an image of his dancing princess, and then joins her in the lantern's secondary reality. The visual delights of Eaux d'artifice (1953) were inspired by a beautiful location, an Italian garden of fountains. Enchanted by the 17th century setting, Anger used infra-red B&W film and carefully lined up each shot so that the light would set off the water sprays from their backgrounds; he also changed camera speeds and shutter angles to make the droplets of water seem alive. A grand lady character strolls down the garden's many steps. Anger's brilliant stroke is to cast a heavily costumed midget in the role, to double the apparent size of the fountains! The entire film is toned blue and set off by a couple of startling hand-tinted shots. By the end, the show has gone way beyond the notion of 'pretty pictures'; it's as if we've spent thirteen minutes in a new reality. The musical background is the 'winter' section of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) is Anger's most magical film. Suggested by a "Come as your madness" costume party, it's clearly a harmonious effort by friends eager to be part of an Anger Happening. It looks as though the filmmaker locked them all up for as long as it took to work out his complex lighting and special effects schemes. The picture is a pantheistic "Night on Freak Mountain," a kind of cinematic pageant where an eclectic gallery of mythological figures -- Shiva, Aphrodite, Astarte, Ganymede -- gather to 'do their thing.' Remarkable creative energy is behind this parade of charades. The costumes are terrific and the strange make-ups alarming; after a few minutes we're accepting men with cabalistic painted faces as totemic mythological figures. The color movie makes good use of the extreme décor of the house of Sampson De Brier, who also plays Shiva, Osiris and The Great Beast. De Brier's rooms were already painted in bright colors like red and yellow; it's a perfect fantastic setting. Anger plays Hecate, fellow experimental filmmaker Curtis Harrington is a slave, and the remarkable Anaïs Nin is Astarte. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome ended up as a key inspiration for trippy psychedelic movies; let's just say that its dozens of creative in-camera visual effects have been ripped off daily for fifty years. Unlike the Warhol group of 'artists,' Anger's contemporaries made movies instead of non-movies, and they spent their time studying and sharing art instead of promoting the notion of instant superstardom. Anger's films are modern art visions of beauty that don't require intellectual excuses to connect with an audience. Fantoma's DVD of The Films of Kenneth Anger, Volume One showcases brand new film restorations by UCLA, The Film Foundation and others; much of the actual film work was done at the lab Triage. The films are annotated with text explaining their various 'lives' in altered forms; some have been exhibited in shorter versions and synchronized with different soundtracks. Kenneth Anger's relaxed commentaries make all the difference. He speaks openly about the circumstances of filming. He saved the family's Christmas tree until Spring, when he filmed Fireworks. Rabbit's Moon became possible when some Russian filmmakers gave him a batch of unused film stock, and a French studio allowed him to film for free in the 'vacation month' of August. Anger identifies players and speaks honestly of mistakes, but doesn't indulge in gossip or tell tales out of school. A fat insert book (48 pages) documents the details of each film while offering attractive frame grabs, storyboard art and a few photos of the handsome Anger. Anaïs Nin's diary pages about a wild party and her film shoot are included as well. We occasionally have to read between the lines: We're not told why Rabbit's Moon lay unfinished for twenty years but can guess that unpaid bills had something to do with it. Martin Scorsese offers an introduction praising Anger's electric images and especially his use of music. Experimental filmmakers can't be accused of doing what they do for the money. Anger's work has lived on in museum and film school showings; none of them ever received anything like an organized theatrical distribution. It's interesting that soon after the publication of the popular coffee-table version of his notorious scandal book Hollywood Babylon, Anger stopped making movies for twenty-five years. In a quaint touch, the book offers a website for Canyon Cinema, where Anger's films can be rented in 16mm, the old fashioned way.
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,
The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 1 rates:
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LAGARDE (Delagarde), PIERRE-PAUL-FRANÇOIS DE, Sulpician, priest, and missionary; b. 19 July 1729 at Séguret (dept of Vaucluse), France; d. 3 April 1784 in Montreal (Que.).
Pierre-Paul-François de Lagarde entered the Séminaire Saint-Charles d'Avignon on 1 Nov. 1743 and by 21 Oct. 1746 was studying in Paris. He became a member of the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice in Paris on 22 March 1754, was ordained deacon, and left for Canada on 25 May. He travelled on the frigate Gloire with the Sulpician François Picquet and his delegation of Indians who were returning home. The voyage from Rochefort to Quebec took until 15 September.
Ordained priest in Quebec on 24 May 1755, Lagarde rejoined Picquet at the mission of La Présentation (Oswegatchie, now Ogdensburg, N.Y.). Here he concentrated on work with the Iroquois and his involvement enabled Picquet to carry out other than religious projects during the Seven Years' War. For five years Lagarde ministered to the Indians and the French, at one time with the help of François-Auguste Magon de Terlaye and at another time with Jean-Claude Mathevet, and frequently in the absence of Picquet. He also familiarized himself with the difficulties of the Indians' language. In his spare time he took up botany, and it was reported that he had transformed the parish register into a herbarium. He studied, among other plants, the wild ginger (Asarum Canadense L.), the matgrass (Nardus Stricta L.), the marguerite (Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum L.), the ox-eye daisy (Anthemis Tinctoria L.), and the daisy (Bellis Perennis L.).
When the British army invaded New France from the west in 1760, Lagarde remained at the mission to give spiritual solace to the defenders. On 23 July he signed the records at La Présentation for the last time, and a month later he was taken prisoner by Amherst at Fort Lévis (east of Prescott, Ont.). Released on parole, he made his way to Montreal, where he served as a priest from November 1760 to May 1761. After a year and a half at the mission of Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes (Oka, Que.), he was appointed in January 1763 to the rural parish of Lachine. Each year until 1 June 1777 he performed about 50 baptisms, as many burials, and ten or so weddings. In 1769 his presbytery burnt down, and he quickly rebuilt it. After this disaster a new register traces the administration of the parish; the balance-sheets show surpluses increased six-fold from 1769 to 1776.
When Magon de Terlaye died in 1777 Lagarde was recalled to the Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes mission as bursar, and he became the superior after Mathevet left in 1778. In this position he had a double responsibility. As the representative of the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice, seigneur and landowner, the superior granted sites to the Indians which they might use without charge but could not own; in addition he was often called upon to provide material assistance. From 1778 to 1783 Lagarde devised regulations which were approved by the elders of the tribes, tried to get the Indians to adopt an orderly way of life, and resisted Iroquois claims to ownership of the land. His other role as shepherd of his flock is revealed in the manuscripts he left: a catechism and sermons in French, but especially his work in Iroquois, a grammar and sermons (though his knowledge of that language shows no real sense of its spirit).
By 1782 Lagarde had fallen ill, but he remained at his post until February 1784. He died at Montreal on 3 April 1784 and was buried beneath the chancel of Notre-Dame.
ANQ-M, État civil, Catholiques, Notre-Dame de Montréal; Saints-Anges (Lachine). ASSM, 8, A; 24, Dossier 2, Dossier 6. Allaire, Dictionnaire. Gauthier, Sulpitiana. Louis Bertrand, Bibliothèque sulpicienne, ou histoire littéraire de la Compagnie de Saint-Sulpice (3v., Paris, 1900). André Chagny, Un défenseur de la "Nouvelle-France," François Picquet, "le Canadien" (1708–1781) (Montréal et Paris, 1913). J.-A. Cuoq, "Anotc kekon," RSC Trans., 1st ser., XI (1893), sect.i, 137–79.
© 1979–2024 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Cite This Article
J.-Bruno Harel, "LAGARDE, PIERRE-PAUL-FRANÇOIS DE," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 4, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 4, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/lagarde_pierre_paul_francois_de_4E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:
Permalink: | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/lagarde_pierre_paul_francois_de_4E.html |
Author of Article: | J.-Bruno Harel |
Title of Article: | LAGARDE, PIERRE-PAUL-FRANÇOIS DE |
Publication Name: | Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 4 |
Publisher: | University of Toronto/Université Laval |
Year of publication: | 1979 |
Year of revision: | 1979 |
Access Date: | March 4, 2024 |


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This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A group of police chiefs from across the United States, including Salt Lake City's top cop, issued a statement Tuesday condemning the U.S. Senate's vote last week rejecting a series of gun control amendments, including one requiring background checks for all gun show and online gun sales.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank, who is on the board of directors of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, joined in the group's characterization of last week's Senate vote as "a disgrace."
"Showing an unprecedented lack of courage, U.S. Senators defied the will of the American people and voted according to their instructions from the Washington gun lobby," the association's statement reads. "Much was said about the rights of gun owners, but almost nothing was said about the equal rights of the public to be safe from gun violence."
In an interview Tuesday, Burbank said the strong language of the letter was approved by the association's five-member board of directors but that the association's support of stronger gun laws which include universal background checks, limits to high-capacity magazines and a ban on assault weapons represents the unanimous opinion of the association's members, who oversee police agencies in the 70 largest cities in the U.S. and Canada. Burbank has been the board's vice president for three years.
Burbank said that while mass shootings such as the ones in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., get the most attention, there are many other gun deaths in cities across the country that police deal with every day. Restricting criminals' access to guns would make a difference, he said.
"People who want to do society harm are getting access to firearms when they shouldn't," Burbank said.
Burbank said that the measures supported by the police chiefs were moderate.
"Reasonable, in the middle, is where we need to be, and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a lot of reason in this current debate," he said.
The letter also cited last week's bombing attacks by two suspects in Boston, which also included the fatal shooting of a police officer, as "a reminder of the violence that constantly threatens the public and their police."
"Like all cops who put on a uniform each day, Chiefs of Police will not give up on Washington," the statement continues. "We will continue our struggle for laws that protect the public from gun violence."
In addition to the background checks amendment, both Republican Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee opposed an amendment to limit the size of gun magazines and enact a ban on assault weapons.
The Utah senators did vote in favor of a Republican amendment that would increase resources for gun prosecutions, augment mental health screenings and add to school security, as well as permit interstate handgun sales. None of the amendments met the chamber's 60-vote threshold to pass.
"[Senator Hatch] voted for a proposal that wouldn't restrict Second Amendment rights," said Hatch spokesman Matthew Harakal on Tuesday.
Harakal noted that Burbank did not reach out to the senator's office before the vote. The day after the measures failed, Hatch said in a Senate floor speech that the measures he voted against "failed to respond to the Newtown tragedy."
Hatch added that "people, not guns, kill and harm other people and criminals will not obey the law."
"It does no good to pretend otherwise or legislate for a society in which those things are not true, in other words, for a society that does not exist," Hatch said.
Lee's office declined on Tuesday to offer any comment on the police chiefs' statement, but Lee has offered previous public statements about his vote.
In an op-ed piece published in USA Today on the day the gun measures were defeated, Lee defended his decision to vote against the background checks measure, known as the Toomey-Manchin amendment, saying it was "too vague for law-abiding citizens to understand with certainty, and too easy for criminals to avoid."
"Gun-control advocates point to polls that show support for expanding background checks," Lee wrote, "But members of Congress do not get to vote on broad poll questions. They have to vote on specific legislation. If we are trying to minimize the burden on law-abiding gun owners while taking significant steps to prevent the next Sandy Hook, the Toomey-Manchin amendment, and the others that would have limited Second Amendment rights, failed both elements of that test."
Twitter: @KimballBennion


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Have you always thought that you could get really into opera if it were more easily accessible? Well, thanks to the coronavirus, now is your chance. OperaWire has reported that the Metropolitan Opera will host "Nightly Met Opera Streams" on its official website in an attempt to continue providing opera to its audience members. "We'd like to provide some grand opera solace to opera lovers in these extraordinarily difficult times," said Met general manager Peter Gelb in a press release. "Every night, we'll be offering a different complete operatic gem from our collection of HD presentations from the past 14 years."
The stream will be free and will present encores of The Met's acclaimed Live in HD series. The performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be available to stream for 20 hours. The first week's schedule, outlined below, will be featuring timeless classics as Carmen, La Bohème, and La Traviata. If your only familiarity with Carmen is the film Carmen: A Hip Hopera starring a young Beyoncé, and the closest you've come to watching La Bohème is watching Rent: Live, this is a great way to expand your horizons.
Monday, March 16 — Bizet's Carmen
Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. Transmitted live on January 16, 2010.
Tuesday, March 17 — Puccini's La Bohème
Conducted by Nicola Luisotti, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas. Transmitted live on April 5, 2008.
Wednesday, March 18 — Verdi's Il Trovatore
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on October 3, 2015.
Thursday, March 19 — Verdi's La Traviata
Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, and Quinn Kelsey. Transmitted live on December 15, 2018.
Friday, March 20 — Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. Transmitted live on April 26, 2008.
Saturday, March 21 — Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, and Mariusz Kwiecien. Transmitted live on February 7, 2009.
Sunday, March 22 – Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
Conducted by Valery Gergiev, starring Renée Fleming, Ramón Vargas, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Transmitted live on February 24, 2007.


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Does Callisto have a Surface in Motion?
No signs of crustal movements have been seen on the surface of Callisto! The surface of Callisto was carefully examined for signs of faulting and fracture. These would have provided evidence of pushing and shoving of the crust of Callisto from processes inside.
Examination of the surface of Callisto shows only that there has been gradual slumping, or "relaxation" of the craters, and what is termed "sublimation-erosion" of the surface.
This type of surface is perhaps unique in the solar system. It is certainly a different type of surface that either that ofGanymede or Europa. (The other major moon of Jupiter, Io, exhibits volcanism over the entire surface.) The difference may have to do with the lack of heat in the interior of Callisto.


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The Surprising Work Perk People Want Most
If employers made it easy for employees to find high-quality care providers for the needs of their entire family — including children, seniors, pets and the household itself — most workers say it would help them to balance their work, family and personal obligations and increase job satisfaction and productivity, a new survey shows.
Make it part of an employer-sponsored benefit package and it becomes a work perk that will get workers' attention.
Care.com, an online care platform founded in 2006, gives families and individuals 24/7 access to caregivers for everyday, occasional or backup care from a variety of providers, including babysitters, nannies, senior/elder care support housekeepers and even pet sitters.
This workplace care solution provides millions of prescreened in-home service providers and care service companies. Users can each search for providers or post a job to have candidates apply directly.
Family-care provider services are more than feel-good initiatives; access to caregiver support is vital to workforce performance and productivity.
According to a major study by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, individuals with significant caregiving responsibilities are often forced to take a leave of absence, shift from a full-time to a part-time schedule, sacrifice specific job benefits or even resign.
More than 65 million people in the U.S. are family caregivers, and of these, more than 60 percent have taken time from work to deal with caregiver issues. And it's not just individual caregivers who bear the brunt of the caregiving crisis — 72 percent of work absenteeism is due to child care-related issues, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
These incidental unplanned absences result in the highest net loss of productivity and, on average, 35 percent of base payroll is attributed to employee absences.
Care.com is helping major companies such as Google, Facebook and Hallmark keep employees focused with its workplace solutions programs, providing easy access to care for the entire family including children, seniors, pets and household needs, but smaller companies such as Honest Tea and Hubspot participate in such programs as well. Depending on the extent of benefits provided, workplace solutions cost companies from $25,000 to $500,000 annually.[s1]
According to Pfizer, the pharmaceuticals company, any funds spend by the employer to help with caregiving have a payback to the employer of two-and-a-half to five times the investment.
A recent survey of companies offering Care.com caregiving benefits programs showed that 80 percent of employees worked as much as 12 additional hours per week, 60 percent went to work when they wouldn't have otherwise (reducing absenteeism), 75 percent noted reduced stress levels, and 70 percent reported that Care.com was a factor in their decision to remain with their organization.
Ned Smith at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @nedbsmith.


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That's a photo of The Mins. We're SPYR. We designed and developed The Mins website. Now we designed and developed tru. Today you can buy tru. High hair not included.
I'm speaking in short sentences. There's no apparent reason. This is filler. Nobody will read this. But if you do read this. I'm sorry. Carry on. That is all. No more post. Why exactly are you still reading? That's it. Finished. Finito. Please stop. You can go now. Click here. Or here. Goodbye. Sayonara. This is getting awkward. It's time. Please go. There's more internet to be read. I'm through here. You hang up. No, you hang up. No, you. Fine, on 3. One. Two. Three… You didn't hang up. Fine. I'll have to. This is the last word. Or maybe this. Nope. I got it. This will be it. Antelope.
Or not.


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Given a year to mature, the Institute for Chemical Biology is relaunching under a new name that better reflects its vision of bringing Stanford's unique interdisciplinary culture to bear at a new frontier of chemistry.
Last summer Stanford launched the Institute for Chemical Biology as a joint venture of the schools of Medicine, Engineering and Humanities & Sciences with the goal of encouraging interdisciplinary research and training at a new frontier of chemistry, that of human health. Given a year to mature, the institute is relaunching under a new name that better reflects this vision: Stanford ChEM-H.
Stanford Report spoke with the institute's director, Chaitan Khosla (the Wells H. Rauser and Harold M. Petiprin Professor in the School of Engineering and professor of chemistry), about the new name, his goals for the ChEM-H and the challenge of bridging the worlds of chemistry and biology.
ChEM-H is an unusual term. What does it represent?
The term ChEM-H has two meanings. In one, it is shorthand for an emerging interdisciplinary area of chemistry that this institute will support; that is, using the principles and tools of chemistry to better understand and advance human health. It is also an acronym for the fields that will need to come together for us to be successful (Chemistry, Engineering and Medicine for Human health).
Stanford is in a unique position to bring those fields together in a meaningful way. We have strong schools of Medicine, Engineering and Humanities & Sciences, all within walking distance. We are also very close to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where researchers can visualize individual molecules of life and their interactions in unprecedented atomic detail.
You've talked about a new frontier in chemistry. What do you mean by that?
The core value of chemistry remains timeless, even to a high school student. Chemistry is the science that makes new forms of matter and measures its properties at an atomic level. That said, I see the field of chemistry as being at an inflection point analogous to a period of time immediately after the transistor was invented. As mathematicians started to recognize the capabilities of this device, the field of computer science emerged.
In a similar way, the human genome project has created a resource that opens the door to understanding human biology in the language of chemistry. Up to this point, the impact of chemistry on our world has been profound – all the synthetic products we use in our daily lives are a result of chemical ingenuity. This, of course, includes a vast majority of medicines that society has come to rely upon so heavily. I predict that the emerging frontier between chemistry and human biology will challenge future generations of chemists and molecular engineers to elevate their design, synthetic and analytical skills to new heights. In turn, these pursuits will fundamentally alter our understanding of who we are as a species and as individuals.
What prompted this push to bring together chemistry, biology, engineering and medicine?
Back in 1987 my colleague Arthur Kornberg wrote an insightful piece for Biochemistry in which he talked about chemistry as the universal language, but said, "Unfortunately, the full use of this language to understand life processes is hindered by a gulf that separates chemistry from biology."
I would say that very little has changed in the past 25 years. Chemists and biologists do not speak the same language. To the extent they engage each other in academia and industry, they do so on a need-to-know basis. This hinders the two communities from fully exploiting each other's tools and thought processes. It also unnecessarily compartmentalizes the most important foundational knowledge base of modern healthcare.
During this same time period, engineers have started to focus their problem-solving skills on the grand challenges of medicine. Twenty-five years ago, when I interviewed for the position of assistant professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at Stanford, my senior colleagues found it amusing that an engineer could be so hooked on molecular biology. Today, biomolecular engineers embrace chemistry with gusto, as they seek out more and more powerful tools to enhance the efficiency of their design-build-test cycles at an atomic level.
At the core of ChEM-H is rethinking the way that chemists, biologists, engineers and clinicians are educated. I envision a new breed of physician-scientist-engineers who would make Arthur proud through their facility with the languages of biology and chemistry. They will identify important challenges in human health with the eyes of a clinician. And they will think like engineers, as they harness tools from chemistry and biology to drive toward fundamentally grounded yet resource-efficient solutions to these problems.
To someone who doesn't know the field, ChEM-H sounds a bit like biochemistry. How are they different?
ChEM-H provides an invaluable sense of purpose to chemistry as the field orients itself toward human biology. Because the emphasis is on humans, and because of the unique ethical and practical challenges associated with studying humans, the engagement of molecular engineers and clinicians is essential in ChEM-H.
Biochemists have generally studied the molecular basis of life in test tubes or by using surrogate organisms that are easily maintained in a lab, such as plants, bacteria, yeast, flies or worms. Much of what is learned applies to humans, but the focus has not traditionally been specific to humans or human health.
Look ahead 10 years. What will Stanford ChEM-H have achieved?
ChEM-H will have created a flourishing community of researchers who are advancing the frontiers of human health from a chemical and engineering perspective. Some of these scientists will be new faculty recruits, in partnership with the schools of Medicine, Humanities & Sciences, and Engineering. Others may be highly accomplished and entrepreneurial chemists from industry, who are motivated to collaborate with Stanford's biologists and clinicians on projects where a well-designed molecular tool can blaze a trail from the bench to the bedside. The ability of ChEM-H to connect existing faculty from Stanford and SLAC's physical, chemical and biomedical communities via seed grant programs will also pay off handsomely.
The power of ChEM-H lies in the fact that it does not seek to displace or compete with Stanford's awesome disciplinary strengths in chemistry, biology, engineering and medicine. Rather, the institute aspires to strengthen these disciplines by expanding their intellectual boundaries and helping them attract the kinds of students who aspire to reinvent the health care industry from the ground floor upward. These researchers will speak chemistry, love to tinker on a length-scale a million times tinier than the width of a human hair, and only show deference to the laws of thermodynamics. Their achievements will define ChEM-H more profoundly than any words can.
Media Contact
Amy Adams, University Communications: (650) 796-3695, firstname.lastname@example.com


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Show All Answers
To report the illegal use of fireworks, call 911. For non-emergencies (parties, noise, etc.) use the non-emergency line, 290-1011, from July 1-5 between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m.
Sedgwick County will staff a fireworks/nuisance, non-emergency line, 316-290-1011, during the following times:
This number should be used for fireworks complaints and other general nuisances, such as loud parties, during this operational period. If there is something on fire, injuries that have been sustained, fights or disturbances, or anything of a more critical nature occurring that would require the immediate assistance of law enforcement, firefighters, or EMS paramedics, citizens should call 911 directly.
Citizens that call 911 for nuisance complaints during this period will be transferred over to the non-emergency line. Dispatchers staffing 911 lines will not take nuisance complaints when the non-emergency line is operational.
Yes. Residents need to clean up all fireworks debris once it's safe to do so. Spent fireworks should be soaked in water before disposed of in a trash receptacle.


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"China's shadow banking system," the name alone sounds mysterious and uncertain. In recent weeks, this complex system of wealth management and trust products has struck fear into investors, due to apprehension about a potential default. As we follow the ongoing developments in shadow banking, we ourselves are concerned. However, over the long-term we are optimistic for China's plans to further liberalize interest rates and promote financial disintermediation.
During our trip to Asia last fall, we met with the major players within the Chinese banking system, including those with expert understanding of how the banks' off-balance-sheet products work, the magnitude of the market, and the fallout that changes to industry dynamics could have on the larger financial system. Our discussions confirmed the complexity of this financial system. There are varied estimates on size and potential impact, but there's general agreement that the system has grown rapidly. J.P. Morgan estimates that the shadow banking system doubled in size between 2010 and 2012, equivalent to nearly 70% of GDP, and that it may have grown an additional 30% in 2013.
The shadow banking system broadly refers to an estimated $7.5T* in credit intermediation outside the regular banking system. This Chinese shadow banking system's products differ from those offered by banks in the United States and United Kingdom in that many of the products are directly controlled by the banks and are merely an alternative means to extend credit to their other customers. Few are market traded and the counterparties are non-financial corporate borrowers and investors, as well as retail investors. Trust loans at an estimated $1.5T* represents a non-bank extension of credit (that is, off the banks' balance sheets) in the Chinese shadow banking system and have received increased attention over the past couple years given their outsized growth and increased reports of defaults.
In response to customer demands for higher yields, $1.5T of trust products have been created. The banks have benefited significantly as these products allow them to extend credit outside of the banking system, and thus above the government's stated targets for credit growth. The largest borrowers of the loans underpinning the trusts are local governments, property developers, and corporations looking to fund long-term investments.
The loans in the trusts typically have terms from 18 to 36 months and yields in the 9% to 13% range. Despite these high yields, Chinese investors largely perceive these trusts to be "risk-free" given their implied backing from the banks and government. This system works as long as investors are willing to reinvest every 18 to 36 months or new investors come into the market.
China's government is committed to slowing credit growth and allowing markets to price credit risk through the removal of implied bank and government guarantees. However, the government also clearly recognizes that these longer-term objectives must be balanced with more immediate concerns—including the potential that defaults could spiral out of control and lead to a liquidity crisis and a seizing up of the financial system. This would not be unlike what happened when U.S. banks stepped away from the auction-rate preferred market, leaving investors with illiquid securities. This was the first indication that the financial system was starting to seize up.
Shadow banking is a by-product of innovation within a heavily regulated, traditional banking system that is struggling to satisfy the country's credit and liquidity demands, while providing attractive real interest rates to households and business depositors. The healthy direction for the shadow-banking system would be to improve transparency, appropriately price risks and increase monitoring and control of the market, in parallel to the interest-rate liberalization of the banking system. Unwinding this without fueling systemic risk will be complex because credit is not being priced accurately and nonperforming loans are shuffled around the financial system.
While we have seen more than 50 trust defaults over the past few years, they have been relatively small and easily contained. However, the most recent threat of default was a different matter, given its size ($500M) and initial indications from the Chinese Central Bank that it would not support this product in default. Global markets participants feared that if Chinese investors began to view these trust products as entailed high risk, this changed perception could spiral quickly, causing China's trust and wealth management industries to seize up, with ensuing fallout that could roil the global financial system to the extreme. However, after Asian markets closed on Monday, an unknown "investor" stepped in to purchase the defaulted trust from its current holders. It is widely hypothesized that the unnamed investor is connected in some way to the central bank.
Emerging markets have received a reprieve and a systemic risk has been temporarily taken off the table. Still, this should serve as a wake-up call for those investors who are focusing on the returns in emerging markets without giving equal—or greater—consideration to the risks. We have always been diligent in our monitoring of events and potential consequences within the Chinese banking system, and this certainly won't change.
China is clearly in a period of transition. The government wants the market to set prices and allocate capital, which would help prevent excess leverage in unproductive products. What is important to us as investors is how China navigates this transition. It is our hope that the government sends the right signals, while not disrupting the flow of liquidity within its financial system. The unknown investor that came to the rescue illustrates how the government is trying to balance their nearer-term and longer-term priorities, in this case—communicating the risks of these products without allowing a default to happen.
We expect we will discuss Chinese trusts again this year, as other high-profile trust products will likely default. But, we also expect that our team will be identifying companies positioned to benefit from the longer-term financial disintermediation trends. While we remain underweight to Chinese banks, we are finding new opportunities within the private banking system as e-commerce companies begin offering online banking services and the brokerage and insurance industries benefit from the opening of the world's second largest economy.


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After 10 years working for Panache, a 30-year-old U.K.-based bra company specializing in D-cup-and-up bras, Kay-Lin Richardson has become something of a bra-fit badass.
Panache is a favorite of busty celebs like Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Simpson, and Kay-Lin often conducts VIP bra fittings out of the company's NYC showroom for women like Cosmopolitan.com's own Elisa Benson.
In Kay-Lin's experience, many of the women she fits don't even realize they are wearing the wrong size bras and are surprised by just how different their actual bra size is. For this reason, she suggests every woman take a good, hard look at the bra she's wearing and ask herself these seven simple questions:
1. Is my underwire sitting away from my chest wall?
This means your cups are too small. Your underwire should fit firmly against your chest without any gaping. Assuming your straps are properly adjusted, you'll know you've found the right band fit when you can lift your arms over your head without the underwire rising up.
2. Are my breasts bulging out over the top, sides, or bottom of my cups?
You should probably go up a cup size. The cup should hold your entire breast without the dreaded quadra-boob. "I always suggest women bring a T-shirt with them to try on bras," Kay-Lin says. "They might think a bra looks great, but then they put a T-shirt on over the top and realize it actually isn't giving them the shape they want. Or they might feel so-so about a bra and then put the T-shirt on and realize it's perfect."
3. Is my strapless bra slipping down?
You need to go down a band size. In fact, you may need to go down a few band sizes. With only the band to hold your chest up, a proper, firm fit is essential if you don't want to spend the whole night hiking up your bra.
Kay-Lin also suggests shopping for formal dresses and bras in tandem so you don't end up with a dress that leaves you unsupported. "A lot of brides in particular want to go with these strapless, backless styles, but that can be tough when you've got a large bust to support. Sometimes they have support built in, or it can be added later, but not always."
For this reason Kay-Lin advises taking your dress (wedding or otherwise) with you when you go to try on bras, or even finding the strapless bra that works best for you before dress shopping.
4. Are my straps digging into my shoulders?
You need to go down a band size. In order for the bra to provide proper support, the band and straps need to work together. If the straps are digging into your shoulders it's a sign that the straps are doing too much of the work for you.
5. Are my breasts falling to the sides instead of going straight forward?
Ditch the T-shirt bra for something seamed. "A lot of women favor seamless, molded-cup T-shirt bras because they're worried that seamed bras will show up under their clothes," Kay-Lin says, "but especially with larger busts, those seams are mostly under the breast and are rarely noticeable under clothing."
6. Is the back of my band riding up?
Again, your band is probably too large. Instead of bowing up, your band should fit firmly and horizontally across your back.
7. Are my cups wrinkling or gaping?
In this case, your cups are probably too large. You should either go down a cup size or, if only one cup is loose, add padding to help them out.
How to Make High Heels More Comfortable
21 Problems Only Women With Big Boobs Understand
6 Tips for Finding a Better Bra
8 Rules for Dressing a Large Bust You Should Seriously Never Follow
This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.


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For all three sides of Ventoux in one ride – see here
October is a great time to cycle this legendary volcano – not too hot, although pretty chilly at the top. It was my third time up Ventoux this year – in May I climbed from Malaucene and from Bedoin.
The road wasn't crowded but there were still plenty of cyclists – mainly foreigners that were here for one reason – to climb Ventoux.
Ventoux means windy, and it is not uncommon to have winds above 100 kmh at the summit or even snow in July. On the other hand it can sometimes be a furnace, especial on the South side. Mont Ventoux first appeared in the Tour de France in 1951. This mountain can be a killer. In the 1967 Tour de France, UK rider Tom Simpson collapsed and died while climbing Ventoux – see the picture of his monument above.
Luckily, friends drove up so I could skip the descent, because it was COLD up top.
Here's a great photo of the top that Doreen took in May, 2007. I am a little speck on right.


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An electricity meter that sometimes runs backwards is just one of the cool aspects of Department of Energy near-zero-energy homes. While low or no electric bills are an obvious benefit, high energy efficiency homes and businesses also reduce the amount of electricity that needs to be generated, thus reducing pollution, said Jeff Christian of DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
From Oak Ridge National Laboratory :
Near-zero-energy buildings blessing to owners, environment
An electricity meter that sometimes runs backwards is just one of the cool aspects of Department of Energy near-zero-energy homes.
While low or no electric bills are an obvious benefit, high energy efficiency homes and businesses also reduce the amount of electricity that needs to be generated, thus reducing pollution, said Jeff Christian of DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
In Tennessee, air pollution is of special concern as the state ranked third behind California and Texas for smog, according to a September 2003 Environmental Protection Agency report. And in June 2003, ozone alerts were in place 25 of 30 days in the Smoky Mountains, the most heavily visited national park in the United States.
Christian, director of ORNL's Buildings Technology Center, believes he and colleagues have at least part of the answer.
"We have a roadmap for communities to transform their building industry from part of the problem to part of the solution by leading buildings from energy consumers to net energy producers," Christian said.
While DOE's long-term goal is to develop technologies that enable net-zero-energy homes at low incremental costs, today's focus is on leading new home owners and builders toward houses that boast high efficiency and use solar panels to generate some of their own electricity.
"The effort must be all-inclusive, so we're not limiting our approach to space heating, cooling, water heating, lighting and major appliances," Christian said. "We're also looking at a number of other advanced technologies and we are integrating sensors so the homeowners can monitor their energy usage and savings."
In July, workers completed a fourth Habitat for Humanity DOE Building America Near-Zero-Energy House. These houses feature airtight envelope construction, advanced structural insulated panel systems, insulated precast concrete walls, a heat pump water heater, geothermal systems, grid-connected solar photovoltaic, adaptive mechanical ventilation, cool roof and wall coatings with infrared reflective pigments and solar integrated raised metal seam roofs.
Construction of the house, located in Lenoir City, was quick and the cost was less than $100,000. The first floor, a walkout basement, was constructed in six hours with premanufactured insulated concrete panels. The top floor walls, made of structural insulated panels, were installed in five hours, and the insulated cathedral ceiling was installed in a mere three hours.
The houses also provide high indoor air quality and mold, mildew and moisture control. In fact, the advanced construction techniques make these houses six times more airtight than similar houses with 2-by-4 wood frame construction. This and mechanical ventilation, which brings outside air into the house, play a huge role in making the design effective.
While the fourth Near-Zero-Energy Habitat for Humanity House was just completed, the first house has been occupied by a family of four since November 2002. The daily cost for heating and cooling this house with an air source heat pump was 45 cents. Adding the cost of operating the water heater and all of the appliances brought the total average daily energy cost for this all-electric house to 82 cents. This number takes into account $291 for solar credits that are part of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Green Power Generation program. In comparison, a conventional house in Lenoir City would use between $4 and $5 of electricity per day.
Already, builders and the public are taking notice, said Christian, who noted that many of the energy-saving features are cost-effective for all houses.
Plans call for a true net-zero-energy house to be built by the end of 2005.
ORNL, which is managed by UT-Battelle, employs 1,500 scientists and engineers and is DOE's largest multipurpose science and energy lab. Funding for this effort is provided by DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Building America Program and TVA.


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Tag Archives: bzzagent
Full disclosure: I've been a 'BzzAgent' for a number of months now. How did I find out about it? Someone else told me. In turn, I've told others and promoted the site to them. And that, is exactly what BzzAgent is trying to do. BzzAgent is part of dunnhumby, a customer science company that analyzes data and customer insight. According to dunnhumby they, "married science with the most expansive suite of consumer advocacy solutions on the planet to create the next generation of advocacy marketing – one created to build and sustain long-term brand growth. From insights and consumer generated content that optimise your product launch plan to widespread reviews that deliver on your brand promise to the authentic customer conversations across social media that drive product sales, you'll feel the impact of these programs across your entire enterprise. BzzAgent's Advocacy Suite is a blend of social and science you won't find anywhere else – with results you won't find anywhere else, either." To the customer, they are marketed as a way to get freebies and sample new products that you can 'brag' about to your friends. There are twitter accounts and blogs devoted to 'free stuff' and giveaways and BzzAgent fits into that demographic perfectly.


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It's a tipping point of sorts: smartphones are not (yet) being used by the majority of U.S. residents, but among mobile users, it looks like they have now outnumbered those on lower-end devices — or so consumers think — according to research out today from Pew.
As of February 2012, 46 percent of the 2,253 adults surveyed said they are now smartphone owners — growing 11 percent in the last nine months, while 41 percent of adults own a device that is not a smartphone.
What's interesting is that these are averages, meaning that we really are seeing a critical mass affecting different demographics. The numbers are actually significantly higher in certain age groups like young adults: among college graduates, 18-35 year olds and the well off, those who said they used a smartphone was at 60 percent and up.
(The converse: very low numbers in another group, those aged 65 and up: only 13 percent of them own smartphones.)
Unlike a lot of the market research that comes from the likes of IDC, Gartner, Strategy Analytics and so on, Pew's findings are not based on "channel checks" with operators and retailers and vendors who ship devices; rather, they are based on how users describe their mobile status.
In a way, that is almost a more telling indication of what is going on — especially if you compare the numbers against those provided by the analyst firms.
For example, Pew found that only 20 percent of mobile owners said they owned an Android device. That was only a rise of five percent on May 2011. Some 19 percent describe their phones as iPhones, a rise of nine percent on May 2011. BlackBerry went down to six percent from 10 percent in May.
Given that by many accounts Android is outnumbering iOS — recent numbers from comScore put the percentages at 47.3 and 29.6 percent — that says something about the brand currency of Google's Android and how many people actually seem to consider that when they are choosing and using smartphones.
Branding and the idea of users staying loyal to their platforms is one question; another is around how these devices get used.
If the great promise of smartphones is to get users connected and communicating in ways they haven't been able to do before, it's something of a reality check to see that today some eight percent of mobile owners still couldn't say with certainty whether they owned a smartphone or not. At least that number was down from 14 percent nine months ago.
(photo: navonod on Flickr)


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Brought to you by the Liberty Mutual Insurance Responsible Sports program
In 2013, Responsible Sports asked for your help to search for exemplary moments of responsibility in youth sports—big and small.
Our panel of experts—including Positive Coaching Alliance Founder and Executive Director Jim Thompson, Executive Directors from leading youth sports organizations like USA Hockey, as well as former and current Olympic greats—has reviewed all the moments from the past year to determine the Top 10 Responsible Sports Moments of 2013. The Top 10 Responsible Sports Moments of 2013 each earn their youth sport organization a $1,000 honorarium.
Which hockey moment made the Top 10? See the extraordinary young athletes and their selfless acts of responsibility here!
At Liberty Mutual Insurance, we constantly look for ways to celebrate the countless acts of responsibility shown by people every day. We created Responsible Sports, powered by Positive Coaching Alliance, as part of this belief to help ensure that our kids experience the best that sports have to offer in environments that promote and display responsibility. We believe kids can learn valuable life lessons when coaches and parents come together to support winning on and off the field. Join the Responsible Sports movement!
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